India, Japan to start joint study on LNG pricing

Tokyo: India and Japan will start a joint study on pricing of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in the Asia Pacific market, amid rising demand for the fuel.

Japan is world's largest consumer of LNG while the demand is expected to rise in the coming years in India.

The decision to launch the joint study on LNG pricing was taken at the sixth India-Japan Energy Dialogue between India's Planning Commission and Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Both countries would co-operate through participation in LNG Producer-Consumer conference to ensure the stable and low-cost supply of LNG, a joint statement said on Tuesday.

"In addition, they confirmed that they would start a joint study on Pricing of LNG in the Asia Pacific market," it added.

India and Japan would also explore the possibility of collaborating in exploration as well as production activities in the oil and gas sector.

"Both sides confirmed that they would strengthen their co-operative relationship relating to upstream development of petroleum and natural gas. Both sides confirmed to explore possibilities of collaboration in exploration and production activities in India and in third countries," the statement said.

The Indian delegation was led by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia while the Japanese team was headed by that country's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano.

Further, both countries would continue to co-operate in the study of Indian offshore seismic data and delineation of gas hydrates area apart from exploring co-operation in gas hydrate research and development.

"Regarding the continuation of the existing collaboration between the PPAC (Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell) and IEEJ (Institute of Energy Economics, Japan), the Indian side (has) proposed a joint study on Unbundling of gas markets in India," the statement said.

On the coal sector, both sides welcomed the launch of a feasibility study by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) regarding a project that combines upgraded brown coal technologies using Indian lignite with ultra super critical coal power generation technologies.